County requests $2.2m from FAA for projects

County requests $2.2m from FAA for projects

By NANCY MADSEN
TIMES STAFF WRITER
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2010
Jefferson County is asking the Federal Aviation Administration for $2,265,750 for four projects at Watertown International Airport, Dexter.
One construction project, a partial reconstruction of taxiway B, which runs next to runway 7-25, is included.
The $1.9 million request to the federal government for that project would be matched by $50,000 each from state and local governments.
The taxiway would be moved closer to the runway and have drainage and lighting improvements.

“It will give us more apron space to those buildings,” said Highway Superintendent James L. Lawrence Jr., who manages the airport. The design for the project is “just about completed and we’re looking at partial construction.”
The design for extending taxiway A, which runs next to runway 10-28, would be funded through a $193,800 request to the FAA with $5,100 in state and local matches.
That taxiway and runway were just extended 1,000 feet to the east, but the taxiway does not match the runway’s full distance to the west. This project would rectify that situation.

The county is asking for $100,700 to update the airport’s layout plan to reflect changes and improvements in the last seven years. The state and local governments would each contribute $2,650.
The final project is a wildlife hazard assessment, for which the county is requesting $71,250 from the FAA, supplemented by $1,875 from both the state and local governments.

“This report was not in our master plan,” County Administrator Robert F. Hagemann III said. “This requirement was the fallout of a plane hitting geese after taking off from LaGuardia Airport over a year ago. Every commercial airport has to re-examine issues of wildlife.”
The county will embark on a request for proposals process soon and could use some of its annual entitlement money from the FAA until it gets the grant funding. The RFP has not been written, Mr. Hagemann said, so the project is several months away.
The county Planning Board will send letters of support for all of the projects to the FAA, it agreed on Tuesday afternoon.

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